THE QUIET CHILD by John BurleyWilliam Morrow Paperbacks☕ ☕ ☕ ☕My Highly Caffeinated Thought: A tense and dark story of what really happened to two missing brothers.

THE QUIET CHILD took me by surprise. I don’t exactly know what I was expecting when I started to read the book, but what I got was something completely different. This book has psychological suspense, some very dark twists, and a bit of the supernatural. However, where this book really shined for me is with the characters and their complexity.

Throughout the pages of this book, all those involved in this thriller will have run the gamut emotionally. As the reader, you will see the choices that characters have to make and the repercussions of those decisions. It is here that the book will grab you. The flip-flopping of what is perceived as real and what is truly real will keep the reader’s interest. I know it did mine. Not to mention the hint of the supernatural. It wasn’t a main theme of the book, but seeing how that part of the narrative ends up will shock you.

THE QUIET CHILD will push the boundaries of family loyalty and explore what lengths a parent will go to keep the ones they love safe. In many ways, this book is just as heartbreaking as it is suspenseful. It is well worth a read.

Reviewer Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book fromthe publisher and TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

Plot Summary:

From the award-winning author of The Absence of Mercy, comes a gripping and darkly psychological novel about family, suspicion, and the price we are willing to pay to protect those we love the most.

It’s the summer of 1954, and the residents of Cottonwood, California, are dying. At the center of it all is six-year-old Danny McCray, a strange and silent child the townspeople regard with fear and superstition, and who appears to bring illness and ruin to those around him. Even his own mother is plagued by a disease that is slowly consuming her.

Sheriff Jim Kent, increasingly aware of the whispers and rumors surrounding the boy, has watched the people of his town suffer—and he worries someone might take drastic action to protect their loved ones. Then a stranger arrives, and Danny and his ten-year-old brother, Sean, go missing. In the search that follows, everyone is a suspect, and the consequences of finding the two brothers may be worse than not finding them at all.

About the Author: John Burley attended medical school in Chicago and completed his residency in emergency medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. He currently serves as an emergency medicine physician in Northern California, where he lives with his wife and daughter, and their Great Dane and English bulldog. Find out more about John at his website, and connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.